A Columbus mayoral candidate faces a lunacy hearing today in Lowndes County Chancery Court.
Garthia Halbert, who is running as a Republican in this year’s municipal election, will appear for the hearing following a series of incidents involving Columbus Police Department. The incidents are recounted in three police department reports The Dispatch obtained from the city through a public records request.
Halbert is a former Dispatch managing editor.
She will go before Gawyn Mitchell, a special master appointed by the court chancellors, at 1:30 p.m.
In order to be referred to a lunacy hearing in Lowndes County, someone must file an affidavit against that person, Chancery Clerk Lisa Neese said. The person is then referred to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle’s mental health unit, where his or her condition is evaluated.
Neese said a CPD officer filled out the affidavit against Halbert. The mayoral candidate does not face criminal charges.
According to the CPD incident reports, Halbert filed two reports with CPD on Feb. 11. In the first, she accused a man of soliciting her for sex on multiple occasions.
In the second report, Halbert told an officer several jewelry pieces, a makeup set, perfume and a brush were taken from her car after Champions Towing towed it in January.
The third incident report, filed on Feb. 13, says Halbert arrived at police headquarters at 6 a.m. claiming she wanted to file a report. She told the officer who attempted to respond that she wanted to speak directly with Chief Oscar Lewis.
Lewis arrived at 7:45 a.m. and told Halbert he would speak to her shortly, according to the report. At 8:30 a.m., Halbert went to Mayor Robert Smith’s office and was escorted out for reportedly harassing his administrative assistant.
Halbert finished meeting with Lewis 10 minutes later, and the officer gave her a ride to a U-Haul rental facility on Highway 45. After Halbert couldn’t rent a truck, the officer then attempted to take her to a Highway 373 residence.
She had asked to go to the Kroger grocery store on Highway 45, but when the officer passed it, Halbert attempted to exit the vehicle while it was moving. The officer then pulled into the center lane and Halbert got out of the vehicle and started walking toward Wal-Mart.
At that point, the officer called emergency medical personnel who took Halbert to Baptist. There, the officer later assisted hospital security and staff in restraining her.
The Dispatch could not reach Halbert for comment by press time.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
